The Making of Anti-Muslim Protest – Grassroots Activism in the English Defence League

by Esmerelda Weatherwax (February 2016)
 

 

The Making of Anti-Muslim Protest – Grassroots Activism in the English Defence League.
By Joel Busher
Routledge (November 19, 2015)
196 pp.,  $119.79,  £90.00.

 

I am reviewing this book as a general reader, mindful that it is a university research study in a field that is not my own. But it has much to commend it.

Anybody anticpating a salacious Daily Mirror and Hope not Hate exposé sub-headed ‘Inside the EDL – the fash you love to bash’ will be bitterly disappointed. This a serious academic work directed at other professionals in Dr Busher’s field of sociology and anthropology. 

Dr Joel Busher is currently a research Fellow at the Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations at the University of Coventry. At the time of the research for this book he was based at the University of East London. He mentioned some previous work in Africa – I didn’t see the EDL activists in and around London and Essex as an ideal anthropological substitute for the Trobiand Islanders but his interest is more political than familial. 

His recording of events is factual, accurate and objective. We stood near each other at many of the same events and what he describes accords with what I also saw. I am therefore confident that when he describes something that I did not witness his report is equally accurate. I should expect no less from a serious academic writing a scientific academic study. Unfortunately I also have experience of others (not academics, but certainly men and women with professional qualifications who should know better) who are less scrupulous so when I do meet honesty and integrity I am inclined to praise it.

There was one particular meeting he describes which is not one I was ever likely to attend, but about which I thought ‘I’d like to be a fly on the wall at that one’. Dr Busher was that fly and his description made interesting reading.

This next bit caught my attention.

That definition is of the utmost importance because he uses the phrase ‘world-making’ frequently throughout the rest of the book. The previous occasion I had heard that phrase used (sometimes world-building) was as used among those who read, write and enjoy the genre of fantasy and or science fiction novels where a new world is invented within which to set not just one novel but a complete scene. Terry Pratchett’s Discworld for example or Larry Niven’s Ringworld. 

Without that definition firmly in mind one might fear that Dr Busher views the experiences being shared as a fantasy land while outside in the real world our fears are groundless. The opposite is the case. As I said, this is a serious academic work and the introduction must not be skipped.

A relatively small point that I liked. The footnotes were not at the foot of each page as in some books where they can take on a life of their own and be longer than the page to which they are a note. Neither were they all at the back as in other books where you are trying to find Chapter 3 ~ footnote 32, and you then read footnote 32 of Chapter 13 and wonder why it makes no sense. The footnotes are at the back of each chapter, in a manner that reminded me (irreverently) of 1066 and All That. This made them easy to find and follow which is good because many of them contained material every bit as interesting as the main text.

Which I interpret to mean that ‘Islamophobia’ is a term of judgmental criticism, rather than scientific description, and thus not one that it is helpful to use.

There are chapters on how people joined the EDL, how the EDL operates as non-racist and not far-right. A very interesting chapter on how and why the EDL started to unravel but never completely did, followed by a chapter on its persistence. I won’t precis each chapter.

Members of the EDL are not expected to abandon their previous life and friends when they join. As a young woman I witnessed the efforts of the then International Marxist Group to isolate and sweep up a shy and impressionable young man into their exclusive orbit. The memory of the morning a formidable friend sent their minivan on its way without him (at 6am!) for a northern demo he had no desire to attend is one that has stayed with me. Dr Busher does not quote the saying prevalent among the most sensible activists of ‘family first’ but he does write that when the reason giving for leaving is for family commitments, that is the reason given the most respect. He further notes that when people leave they frequently stay friends with remaining members and (with one or two exceptions) continue to be welcome at social meets, even the occasional demo. The EDL is not a cult. I have always described it as like the Church of England, a broad church.

Activists do what they do for their families and they could not do what they do without their families behind them.

His conclusions are less about the future of the EDL per se and more about the need for continuing research into various groups and the cause of anti-minority activism.

I’m glad he wrote this book. It reminded me strongly of Young and Willmott ~ Family and Kinship in East London, although that book, researched and written 1954 – 1957, is more accessible to the general reader and students from GCSE level. If Family and Kinship in East London is the story of my early childhood then this book (2011 – 2013) covers aspects of my middle age. Leaving aside his research about activism generally this book should stand in 60 years time with Family and Kinship in East London as an historical document, an act of record for people and a movement in English history. It is far more rational, objective, impartial, accurate and scientific than anything else that I have read so far.

Interestingly, I see that Family and Kinship in East London, reprinted in 1986 is still available as a Penguin Modern classic and has been revived in 2011 by Routledge as one of their Routledge Revivals series.

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